MONTREAL -A woman who says she picked up porn actor and alleged sadistic killer Luka Magnotta as a hitchhiker last week recalled that he was handsome, very polite but had a "strange expression."

Magnotta is a suspect in the grisly Montreal slaying that's made headlines around the world, in which body parts were mailed to political addresses in Ottawa and more might still be en route.

A woman who did not give her name told QMI Agency that she picked up the 29-year-old murder suspect last Thursday in St-Lazare, Que., about 40 km west of Montreal.

She says she was driving along a highway with her son when she saw a man dressed in black who was carrying a black knapsack.

"My son and I let him in and he said he wanted to get to Ottawa or Toronto," she said Thursday.

"He was a very, very polite young man, he had nice black hair, he had piercings, he was very, very well put together."

She said the man was quiet, speaking only when she and her son asked him where he was going.

"He said he came from Montreal and he was hitchhiking to Ottawa and Toronto, and that he had friends there and he did that often," the woman recalled. "I didn't feel at any time that I was in danger (though) I found that he had a very strange expression."

She said she let him off in Valleyfield, Que., near the Ontario border.

A janitor found a dismembered torso in a suitcase in a west-end Montreal apartment on Tuesday, triggering the police investigation and manhunt.

Montreal police said Thursday that Magnotta likely fled the country for Europe on the weekend. The FBI and Interpol have both listed him as a fugitive.

Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere was asked about several experts who have told QMI Agency that Magnotta's grisly crimes bear the hallmarks of a serial killer. He said it's unlikely Magnotta killed others in the past, but that detectives aren't ruling it out.

"As a responsible police service, yes, we're checking this possibility also but now we've got no reason to confirm this."

In a grisly twist to the case, Lafreniere confirmed that a graphic and deeply disturbing video that emerged online, showing a murder and dismemberment, is that of the murder under investigation.

The graphic video online shows a man being stabbed to death with an ice pick and then being cut into pieces.

The victim, an Asian man who looks to be in his 30s, might have been Magnotta's ex-lover who was reported missing just over a week ago in Montreal, according to sources.

Lafreniere wouldn't confirm the relation between the pair but said people from overseas have been calling Montreal police asking about missing men who fit the victim's description.

"He's got no family over here so that makes the investigation more complicated," he said.

Magnotta also goes by the names Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov, Montreal police said. He is white, 5-foot-10, 135 pounds with blue eyes and black hair.

The woman who picked him up last week said she was surprised when she read news articles Thursday identifying Magnotta as a possibly killer.

"I asked my son, 'Do you remember him?' and he said, 'Yes, mom, he was the one we saw.'

"I thought I was picking up a student and was helping him out. We don't just pick up anyone."